I've reached the halfway point of my personal work week here in Germany. It has been a whirlwind couple of days for me, and I am thankful for God's grace to allow me to get everything done so far. I am feeling overwhelmed with thanksgiving right now, so I just thought I should share a few of my praises with you.
Thankful moment #1: Knowing that I would need to hit the ground running in Germany, I prayed for good sleep during my long flight. I even bought some ZzzQuil sleep aid pills and took a do on the plane. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of DEEP sleep I was able to get during the flight and how awake I felt when I deplaned in Zurich on Wednesday morning!
Thankful moment #2: I made it to my new apartment a few hours later and began the task of setting up my phone and wireless router. I had arranged for my service to be moved to the new place while I was away so that it would be functional by the time I arrived. As plugged in all the wires I realized that all my paperwork for the account was at my old apartment and figured I would probably have to go get them in order to set up my new wifi network. On a whim, I opened my computer to see what would happen. Without skipping a beat it connected to my network, Bazinga, and I was surfing the web. WHAT?! If you know anything about phone/internet service in Germany, you will know that it is NEVER this easy.
Thankful moment #3: It had rained for most of Wednesday morning, but I was scheduled to move that afternoon. The rain held off until the very end, and I had a full moving crew of strong friends and former students who worked seemingly effortlessly to transport all my furniture to the new place and even set up my washer and dryer for me! We finished in less than two hours! Because of that I was free to spend the rest of the day unpacking and settling into the new apartment.
Thankful moment #4: On Thursday morning I met a former student and her mom at my old apartment to clean. Thanks to their cheerful and efficient cleaning job, I was able to focus on scrubbing the bathroom while they made the rest of the apartment shine, and all in two hours! All that remained was to defrost the freezer, and I was done with cleaning by noon! That freed me up to spend the rest of the day doing more unpacking/settling in at the new apartment. I also was able to pack two of my three suitcases for Spain and get the rest of my personal effects into the basement for storage.
Thankful moment #5: On Friday morning I met with the BFA housing coordinator and my German landlord to officially check out of the old apartment. The place wasn't in super great shape when we took it over, and because of that there was some damage to the walls and floors that we simply weren't able to fix. Thankfully our landlord is a very understanding and kind man who did not hold us responsible for the damage. There were a lot of things that he probably could have been pretty upset about, but he was gracious and wished me well in Spain.
Thankful moment #6: NO. JETLAG. Yep, you read that right. Did I really cross six time zones?? God knew I needed energy and strength to get all those things done by Friday and I truly believe that He (and my ZzzQuil!) allowed me to sleep soundly. Because I awoke each morning refreshed and well-rested, I was able to get in three full work days and accomplish everything on time.
Thankful moment #7: I HIT 90%!!! Those of you who follow me on Facebook know I had to kick my support campaign into overdrive as I was not adequately funded when I left America on Tuesday. I only had about 73% of my goal and needed to reach 90% to be cleared by TeachBeyond to continue on to Spain. Between new supporters joining my team for the first time and old supporters increasing their giving, my support level jumped to 90% in just two days! PRAISE THE LORD!
Yesterday afternoon the girl subleasing from me this year arrived and I was able to show her around the new apartment, then we both got to meet and talk with our landlords for a bit before we parted ways. It was a strange feeling to have "given away" two apartments in one day and to officially be "homeless" here in Kandern. I actually got a little flutter in my stomach as I pulled out of the driveway, like I was about to embark on a big adventure.
For the remainder of my stay in Kandern I'm staying with my good friends Mike and Kari, who have already been fabulous hosts. This morning I slept in until about 11:00 and entered the kitchen feeling bad about sleeping so late, only to find that I was just in time for crepes and coffee! We took our time, savoring each bite while catching each other up on our summers.
My final task before I can be cleared to depart BFA is to finish updating my curriculum course binders so that they can be passed on to the new science teacher. Today I spent about seven hours at the middle school cleaning up my classroom and office space, and getting my supplies and materials organized.
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| The supply cabinet is reorganized and ready to go! |
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| Saying farewell to my classroom for awhile ... |
Thank you for your prayers and encouragement this week! Before we know it I will be reporting to you from SPAIN!!
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